With less than 30 days before the conclusion of 2020, President of the Berbice Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) Vibert Garrett, confirmed that the entity will not stage any related sporting activities until 2021.
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to Garrett, “Everything is shelved for the remainder of the year, we regret that it happened this way and we wanted to continue but the current situation makes that very difficult. No basketball will be played for the rest of the year, we won’t be playing. We didn’t get permission from the governing body, the GABF, and they are waiting on the Ministry of Health to give permission and we don’t want to break any protocols.”
The Government’s new Covid-19 measures and guidelines allow for sport events to be staged once approval is sought and granted by the Ministry of Health. He disclosed that the association was initially willing to resume sporting activities if given the requisite approval by the relevant authorities and governing body, adding that the respective players under the umbrella of the association have enquired if the sport was going to recommence prior to the year’s end.
Garrett elaborated, “We would have gone out and tried to get the sponsorship to play, everyone is waiting on the go-ahead and I would have called up the players and informed them. If we would have received the green light earlier, we would have played basketball, we just don’t want to do that without the permission and that is why we were waiting on the approval from the Ministry of Health and the federation to start back. Many players have called and asked about the status as to when the sport is starting back. We didn’t plan anything, the federation didn’t give approval for Basketball to be played but we still have the same programne when the Covid-19 finishes. The virus spreads by gathering and with basketball you get gatherings.”
According to Garrett, several initiatives of the association were hampered by the pandemic, among them the commencement of the process to acquire a suitable playing facility in the Corentyne jurisdiction. He further stated that the association is attempting to become independent of community centre facilities, whose policies at times affect the manner in which the sport is developed and played.
Garrett divulged, “We had planned many things that we wanted to work on during the period that basketball was not played. One of the main things we wanted to achieve especially in the Corentyne area is to acquire a better playing facility. One of the things that happens in Corentyne with basketball is you would work on players and due to the facility not being there at your disposal, you would have to work on different players because they are leaving the sport due to the lack of facilities to practice and develop. I want to come out of the Community Centre basketball because it’s very hard to function and when the administration changes who runs these facilities, the policy tends to change. You would work under different administrations at different periods. This is why we need our own facility and this is what we are working on which is to be more independent.”
“It’s a great setback, because the level of the players would have dropped during this period that they are off the field as well as the recruitment drive of players would also be affected. These are the concerns as to how the pandemic has affected the sport”, he said.
